This is the last episode of Out of the Box for the year, so we’re looking back on some of the special moments from 2022.

Every conversation we had taught us something new about music, about our guests, about ourselves, and about the art of storytelling. We learned that there are a million ways to share our stories - it happens through the food we make, our creative pursuits, the way we build businesses, and the way we talk to each other.

So for today’s episode of Out of the Box, we're revisiting conversations with storytellers that floored us. It was really hard to whittle them down, but you’ll hear from a game designer, a rapper, a creative producer, a poet, and an artist.

HOLLY HAWKINS

Holly Hawkins is a game designer at Wargaming and a guest speaker at Powerhouse Late: Gaming. They speak on where their love for games comes from, what it means to pursue goals later in life, the complex relationship between gaming, gender, and access, and their recovery from perfectionism.

TASMAN KEITH

Tasman Keith is a Gumbaynggirr man and rapper from Bowraville who now calls Sydney home. He sat down with Mia ahead of his FBi SMACS Fest performance to talk through a life that’s seen the highest highs and lowest lows, often all at once. He speaks on his enduring optimism, a life spent making music, love, loss, and learning.

MAEVE MARSDEN

Independent artist and creative producer Maeve Marsden is a master storyteller. She speaks on her life in the arts, the necessary messiness of her 20s, queer stories and the way they’re shared, how to fist fruit, and her epic love story. Maeve sat down with Mia ahead of her appearance at All About Women at the Sydney Opera House.

ANDREW HULL

Andrew Hull is a writer, artist, poet and musician from Bourke in Far West NSW. He's also Mia's dad. He speaks the turning points in his life, and the different ways he has grown into his identity over time. Andrew's story is deeply rooted in his home on the Darling river, the Barkaa, and has been told through many creative pursuits, you can check them out here.

DYLIN HARDCASTLE

Dylin Hardcastle is an author, artist, screenwriter and scholar. Their name lives on the cover of the critically acclaimed ‘Running Like China: A Memoir of a Life Interrupted by Madness’ , and ‘Breathing Under Water’, and most recently, ‘Below Deck'. They’re also the co-creator, co-writer and co-director of the online series ‘Cloudy River’. Their story also spans the globe: In 2017, Dylin was an artist-in-residence with Chimu Adventures in Antarctica, and they’ve lived, studied, and created in Australia and the UK too.

Dylin told Mia about a life spent in and on oceans and seas (and the thousand’s of lives that have taken place there), rebuilding from trauma, and stories deposited in pockets of glacial ice.

THANK YOU!

A huge thanks to the team that made Out of the Box possible this year: producers Claudia Copeland, Ella Stewart, Emma Higgins, Luke Wallis, Mary Ventura, Rebecca Merrick and Tash Noore, and audio editor Sam Dover. They bring this show to life each week, and it wouldn't be possible to make it without them.

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